The 2006 NYC Ibogaine conference, took place this year on February 25th and 26th. Speakers travelled from all over the world to take part, and share their experience, knowledge, and information.

The following pages contain a series of photos taken at the event. As usual, everybody in the room with A/V gear either vanished, didn’t bother to turn it on, or experienced the ever-popular teKniChaL DifFi(ultieZ.

And… most of the photographs that follow, land in the last category. No filters were used (other than the automagic adjustments that occur when resizing directories of images, watermarking, and compressing them for online viewing, as part of a workflow); speshul effects are courtesy of a mechanical zoom dropping dead, and flash going off at random. Red eye hasn’t been fixed, because, well, it kinda adds to the ambiance.

Some of the main panelists are not captured here, because… if the person holding the camera wandered out of the room prior to their presentation, the camera went with ’em. And, in far too many cases, the photos that were taken, wound up as a total blur and were completely unusable.

Many speakers who gave great presentations are completely unaccounted for in the pictures that follow. Off the top of my head, there is only a single, out-of-focus shot of Howard Lotsof during his first day’s presentation, and Dr. Kenneth Alper, who gave an amazing talk regarding ibogaine’s possible mechanism of action, is also missing.

The single exception to the “Missing! Due to Technical Problems!” paradigm, was JAMA writer Brian Vastag, who became completely uncontrollable; standing in front of the mic, and screaming, “Let My People Go!” while throwing anti-depressants into the audience. Brian had to be physically escorted from the conference room by Tink, after half a dozen Columbia students failed to subdue him

Regrettably, visionary artists Dave Hunter and Geerte Frenken, are also almost completely absent (it’s difficult to take photos of a person standing in a completely darkened room, while giving a multimedia cruise through their artwork — even WITH a working camera). All is not lost, because Jasmine Hunter was present, and thoughtfully provided a summary for both of her parents.

The 2006 conference was made possible by Tyler Case of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) — who managed to convince Columbia University to put up with us for a day — and Dana Beal of Cures not Wars, who co-organized the event. Both of ’em did an amazing job. Additional thanks go to Rob Kampia, of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

Many of the photos that wound up being useable were taken at CoSM, Alex Grey’s, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. The photos are intended to give people an overall vibe of the space/place/event. They in no way do justice to reproducing Alex’s art which is present in many of shots, and no disrespect is intended to his work.

If you’re in the NYC area, and reading this page, then you should do yourself a favor and check out CoSM. Alex is one of the coolest people on the planet, and a fuckin’ amazing artist. CoSM resonates, and is one of the most charged nexus-points for accessing sacred space — with or without whitelight molecules — on planet Earth.

(Whatever Rifts in the Continuum may have occurred due to our presence, have been healed since then. Your mileage may vary. You have the right to remain silent. Use once and destroy.)